


Hellfire

by MasterPsychosis



Category: Danny Phantom, Rick and Morty
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Demon Vlad Plasmius, Ghost Zone, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Torture, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-02-04 04:48:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12763512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MasterPsychosis/pseuds/MasterPsychosis
Summary: Rick has died. And, as it turns out, Hell does exist; just not in the way Morty thought it would. Upon searching through Rick's research after his passing, Morty discovers that there actually is an afterlife, and it, along with Hell, is accessible through a special kind of portal located in a separate dimension from their own. Determined to drag his grandfather back from the dead, Morty must travel across dimensions and into an entire new plane of existence along with the help of a witty, white haired ghost boy and his friends.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> From the author of the kind of shitty story "A Ricked Twist In Our Story" comes a kind of shorty crossover. But I've been playing with the idea for a while, and with the conclusion of my other work, I figured I'd give it a shot. Please give feed back on what you might like to see pairing wise; I'm a little torn. I hope you enjoy!

37 hours, 12 minutes, and 46 seconds. 

 

That's how long it had been since Morty had last seen Rick. Living, breathing, holier-than-thou Rick. His idol. His demon. His grandfather. 

 

Rick. 

 

He could still smell the burning smoke, still feel the heat searing his skin, could still picture the fear in the scientist's eyes as he'd pushed Morty though the portal. Could still see in crystal clear definition the moment he had been falling back, watching as the laser blasts tore through Rick's lab coat, his favorite sweater, his skull, splattering the teen with blood he knew he would never be able to rid himself of the feeling of it splashing his skin, no matter how many times he scrubbed himself raw in the shower.

 

He could still hear the desperation and heartbreak in his own screams. 

 

The first hour after he had tumbled out of the portal had been spent curled up on the floor, wailing loudly as his mother and sister had attempted to comfort him, to no avail. He had sobbed and sobbed until he couldn't see, until his throat felt raw. And even then, he had continued to bawl until there were no more tears to be shed, leaving the boy a heaving, trembling mass on the floor. 

 

The following twenty-four hours were spent staring at the wall of the garage from Rick's cot, which, through the combined efforts of his mother and sister, he had been haphazardly set on. He had sat there, not moving, barely even blinking, for what felt like ages, expecting for the blue haired genius to suddenly just burst into the room in a flash of blinding green light as he always did. 

 

But he never did. 

 

He didn't know when he drifted off to sleep; all he remembered were the terrible nightmares that plagued him throughout the few hours of rest his mind would afford him. The scenes would jump randomly, never fluidly connected, all only centered around Rick blaming Morty for his demise.

 

“God damn It Morty, why couldn't you have not fucked up for once? See where your bumbling idiocy has gotten me Morty? Y-You fucking see? This is all your fault, y-you stupid piece of shit. I'm dead because of YOU.” 

 

It was only an hour ago that it had occurred to him that he should get up and look around the office. Rick wasn't naive; he knew he was old. He must have left Morty some sort of instructions in case of his passing unexpectedly, right? Instructions on how to get to the Citadel and get himself assigned to a new Rick most likely, which meant leaving his family behind, but what other choice did he have? Rick was right; a Morty was nothing without a Rick by his side to guide him. 

 

What would a Morty even do without a Rick? Morty had often wished that he'd never met Rick, accused Rick of ruining his future so that he could never live a normal life, but what other options were there? He had already been flunking out of school before the scientist had shown up, and he had no real talents of any note, unless they suddenly invented a job where being able to jack off multiple times a day in public without being noticed was a key necessity. 

 

No, without a Rick, a Morty had a very bleak future on Earth either picking up others trash or selling themselves for money for the rest of their lives; neither of which sounded particularly appealing to the boy. 

 

“Besides, it isn't like I haven't left behind my family before. At least I'll get a new one wherever I get moved to.” He'd thought bleakly, the memory of his own dead body flashing across his thoughts. It wasn't much comfort, but it did help alleviate the twisting guilt in the pit of his stomach, if only a little. 

 

It was then that he had stumbled upon what he could only describe as a miracle: a spare portal gun that had been concealed in one of the drawers on Rick's work bench, along with a notebook stuffed full of notes he had never seen before. 

 

Morty sat with a copious amount of writing and schematics littered about him, all unceremoniously tossed aside by the teen as waste, flipping through the notebook with growing fascination. Diagrams and charts of some portal suspension machine decorated the pages, along with notes scribbled on the margin that the brunette painstakingly deciphered, mentally cursing Rick for his atrocious handwriting every couple of lines. 

 

Parts of the work were smudged so badly that he was unable to make out what they said, but it was enough that Morty got the gist of it.

 

From the looks of it, Rick had discovered some sort of doorway to the afterlife in another dimension the teen did not recognize by the coordinates scrawled hastily in the corner of the page, and had apparently been planning on replicating it. It was obvious to him that Rick had not begun the project yet, but that wasn't the important part. 

 

The part that interested Morty was the fact that there WAS an afterlife. And not only that, but it was accessible to the living. 

 

Which meant….

 

It didn't take long for Morty to gather his few personal belongings that he thought he might need. A change of clothes, his cell phone, some food, and some water were all thrown into a drawstring bag he'd been given at the regional science fair a couple years ago along with his grandfather's notebook, and he was good to go. 

 

He'd also made sure to hug his mother and sister before sneaking back into the garage, spitting out some semi-believable story about going for a walk to the park at the end of the street because he couldn't take being in the house without Rick around (which was partially true). That way, when they finally found out he was missing, he'd at least had told them he loved them before he disappeared, on the off chance that he never was able to come back. 

 

The familiar twist of guilt writhed in his stomach as he punched the coordinates hastily into the portal gun. He watched as the fabric of space warped before him, tearing a hole in reality and bathing the room in the unearthly green glow that never failed to cause the brunette to draw in a sharp breath of admiration. The singular, all encompassing testament to his grandfather's incredible genius; to the mind that had managed to outwit the universe that made it. 

 

Gripping the string of his bag tightly, Morty stepped into the portal, briefly noticing the sound of someone saying his name behind him as he immersed himself in the blinding light. 

 

It was always a peculiar sensation to be pulled through the fabric of time and space. It was called a portal, but Morty had always thought that the word ‘tunnel' more accurately described the path between realities. Rick had described the entire process as similar to folding a piece of paper in half and poking a hole through it instead of going along the entire length of the page to get from one spot on the paper to another; which made a lot more sense to Morty as to why the trip was less like stepping from one room into another and more like falling down a slide, except you weren't really falling, and the slide was constantly shifting. 

 

The inside of the portal felt like it itself was alive; a sentient being that pulsed and writhed around him without actually touching as he went along. The entire process took a few seconds at most, but being suspended between existing and not, between time and space itself, always made the experience feel like it dragged on for longer. 

 

It was kind of how he imagined being swallowed whole would feel like. Not that he wanted to test that theory.

 

Morty stumbled out of the portal into the middle of what looked like some sort of lab similar to Rick’s, albeit a lot cleaner and not shoddily set up in someone's garage. At the far end of the room was another portal, giving of the same radioactive green light as his own, and Morty knew immediately that he was in the right place. In fact, he might have even done a little victory dance if it hadn't been for…

 

“Summer?!” Morty froze as he watched his older sister exit the portal, letting reality warp back into place behind her. “Morty, what the hell? You told us you were going to the park!” 

 

“Y-Yea, well, maybe I just didn't want you following me around, pestering me and always being up in my business! Have you ever thought about that S-Summer? Huh?” He replied indignantly, instinctively raising his voice to match hers. “Maybe I didn't want you to come with me and mess everything up!”

 

“Messing everything up? Morty, you can't just go running off across different dimensions and not tell anybody! I'm not going to let you just run away from us, from Mom, like Grandpa Rick did!” She huffed, scowling at their surroundings. “Where are we anyways?”

 

“I-I’m not entirely sure.” Morty admitted, causing Summer to raise an eyebrow questioningly. “I found the dimension code written in some of Rick's notes and-”

 

“So you decided that it would be a good idea to just hop in and take a look around?” Summer shrieked. “What if there had been aliens here? What if it had an atmosphere entirely made up of poisonous gas? You could have gotten us killed Morty!”

 

“Shut UP Summer!” He snapped, interrupting her. He couldn't believe this. Not only did he have to watch out for himself, which never went well anyways; now he had to watch out for her too. But she was right. Not that he was going to let her know that. “Rick's notes said there was a portal to the afterlife here.He left them there f-for me." Summer rolled her eyes. " I'm going to bring him back.”

 

Silence fell between the two of them as the elder of the two stared at the younger for a period time just long enough to make Morty shift uncomfortably. “Well?”

 

“You're insane. The dead stay dead, Morty. There's no way of-” Summer stopped dead in tracks, whipping her head around fast enough to make Morty cringe, briefly wondering if she'd given herself whiplash. “What?”

 

He didn't have to wait for an explanation for long, because as soon as the questioning statement had left his mouth, the door into the room opened, and three teenagers entered the room. Two boys and one very darkly dressed girl stepped into the lab, the girl noticing them much quicker than the others, stopping short and causing the boys to run into her. “Hey! Sam, what gives…?”

 

“Who are you? What are you doing in my house?!” The tallest of the three narrowed his eyes, clenching his fists instinctively, causing Morty to cower back slightly. “H-Hey, we're sorry, we're not trying to cause any trouble..”

 

“Trouble? Anything that shows up in this basement can only be trouble.” The goth girl scoffed, gaze raking over the siblings in front of her. “If Vlad sent you, you can tell him we don't want any after we kick your sorry butts.”

 

Vlad? Who the hell was this ‘Vlad’? Morty and Summer exchanged confused looks before Summer let out an irritated groan. “Okay, look little Ms. Gerard Way,” The uttered a low growl in the back of her throat, which Morty would have taken as a signal to stop personally, but did nothing to affect his obviously annoyed sister. “My brother and I are just here because our grandfather died, and he had some stupid thought that he could bring him back to cure his guilt over it or whatever. We were just leaving, so don't get your panties in a twist. Morty, let's go.” 

 

Summer grabbed Morty’s arm tightly, but he didn't budge. His gaze had wandered over to the portal glowing at the other end of the room. He was so close, and he was sure if they left now, Summer would never let him get another chance to come back again. 

 

“Bring your grandfather back from the dead?” The kid in the red beanie and glasses seemed more intrigued than the other two, who looked suspicious and, in the goth’s case, blatantly annoyed. “Can you even really do that?”

 

“Well, theoretically it's possible. We haven't really tried it.” The other boy scratched the back of his head, frowning slightly. “I don't think it would be quite the same as bringing them back to life, but you could probably being back their spirit. I mean, ghosts come through here all the time after all.” 

 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up. Ghosts?”  Summer’s grip on Morty slacked, and he took this opportunity to rip his arm from her grasp. The trio looked at each other in confusion. “Well, yea? You did say you came here to use the ghost portal to retrieve your grandfather right?” 

 

So that's what they called it. Morty perked up. “Yea! This is yours? Can you help us?” 

 

“Morty!” Summer hissed. “You can't just ask random strangers to come with us; what if they're weird or evil or cannibals?” 

 

Now it was Morty's turn to roll his eyes. “Oh please Summer, cannibals? You've been watching too many horror movies. Besides, Grandpa Rick and I have been traveling across worlds and dimensions for ages. You haven't. I think I have a little better grip on this than you do.” This time, it was Summer's turn to sputter. "Morty, you can't even close your door enough to muffle the sounds of you beating your meat-" 

 

“Traveling dimensions? You mean, other than the ghost zone?” The red beanie kid interjected again as Morty flushed red. Summer shot him a scathing glance. “Yea, yea, our Grandpa and Morty used to travel dimensions using this portal gun he created. But that's not the point! The point is that you,” she jabbed an accusing finger into Morty's chest. “Shouldn't have just tried to run off and rescue Grandpa by yourself! And, even if it is possible, how do you know he WANTS to be rescued? Maybe he's perfectly happy being dead! Ever thought about that?”

~

While the two siblings were bickering, the other three in the room formed a quick huddle session, rapidly running over this development. 

 

“We don't know if they can be trusted! They're just random people who showed up in your basement! Danny, they could be working for Vlad; this could be a trap!” Sam whispered, keeping a careful eye on the other two, who seemed too absorbed in their heated debate to notice them. “Ah, c’mon Sam. They seem pretty honest. Besides, did you see how terrified the brother looked? I think we should help them out.” 

 

“Besides,” Tucker interjected. “If their grandpa is as smart as they say he is, then what if Vlad finds him first? We could be in a load of trouble.” Danny nodded in agreement. If this was a man who could create a small portable version of what had taken his parents years to create, and it could lead to multiple dimensions at the press of a few buttons, then there was no telling what Vlad might do if he got his hands on him. “I think he's right Sam. It could be potentially dangerous to us of we don't check it out. I say we help.”

 

“Fine. But when this all blows up in our face, I'm going to serve you two up a hot, piping plate of ‘I Told You So’.” She sighed, straightening up out of their huddling position. “Hey, we've decided we'll help!” 

 

The difference in their reactions almost caused her to crack a smile. The boy had perked up, and almost seemed to be glowing, whereas the girl had become even more sullen than before. Not that Sam really cared; her feathers were still ruffled from earlier. The redhead crossed her arms defiantly. 

 

“Yea, okay. And just how are we ‘non-ghosts’ going to navigate in the ‘Ghost Zone’?” She put air quotes around the phrase Ghost Zone, and Sam had the sudden instinct to reach out and break her fingers. 

 

“On a speeder.” Danny spoke up before Sam could make a lunge at the girl. “Except for me of course.” 

 

A ring of light encircled the teen’s waist, splitting up and down his body as he transformed. His dark hair became shockingly white, his eyes glowed as green as the portal light, and as suddenly as switching on a light, he was wearing a dark black jumpsuit. Summer stumbled back in surprise, letting out a gasp. Danny smirked.

  
“I'm Danny by the way. Danny Phantom. I’ll be leading you.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know these first two chapters are a little short and slow, but I just really want to set up the story. Next chapter Will be a lot more interesting, I promise. 
> 
> It might just include Rick. ;]

Entering the Ghost Zone hadn't been all too different from stepping through any other portal Morty had gone through in his life, minus the unusual company. And the fact that they required a speeder to navigate instead of just falling through. 

 

In fact, it had been a little disappointing at best. For some reason, he had anticipated some mind shattering shift from everything he'd known. Maybe some distinct sign that they had shifted from the realm of the living to the deceased, but for all practical purposes, he could have gotten the same experience going from the garage to his room at home.

 

Minus the air-chilling tension that seemed to thrive between his sister and the goth girl, who's name was apparently Sam. After Danny had shifted into his ghost form, or as he had put it “Going Ghost!”, he and Summer had received the Sparknotes version of what exactly they were dealing with. Danny, who was current zipping along right besides their cruiser, was a teenager the same age he was who had been messing around in the Ghost Portal when it activated, imbuing the boy with ghost powers while he was still alive, allowing him to switch between regular and ghost forms at the drop of a hat. 

 

He was what they had called a ‘halfa'. Morty had some qualms about this name. They couldn't have come up with anything more creative than adding an A to the end of the word half? If Rick was here, he probably would have made some snide comment about how most people didn't have the brain cells to spare to come up with creative names for things.

 

That occurrence brought a small frown to his face. He really missed Rick. It was just too weird to not have him around, always breathing down the back of his neck, ready to ridicule the teen for whatever blunder he might make. But he'd also been the only person to care about Morty's well-being on a regular basis. Or Morty at all. 

 

Sam Manson was the goth chick, and if he was being honest, she made him a bit nervous. She was imposing, a powerful personality that easily overshadowed his own more timid nature, much like Summer. In fact, if his sister had ever had a goth phase in her life, he was positive that this girl was a spitting image of what it would have looked like. 

 

In fact, she was what his Language Arts teacher would have called the ‘perfect antithesis’ of Summer. Or a foil. He hadn't been paying that much attention with Jessica sitting right next to him, but that sounded about right.  Whereas Summer was most at home in her pink and white attire, always donning a relatively simplistic pink tank top and white jeans, Sam was completely decked out in black and purple from head to toe, with slight hints of green scattered about. 

 

And he apparently wasn't the only one who had noticed this. It was hard to miss the disapproving looks the two girls were exchanging with each other when they thought the other wasn't looking. He and the glasses kid exchanged grimaces. At least they had stopped bickering. 

 

And then there was Tucker, or Tuck for short. He was the kid in the red beanie. So far, he had proven to been Morty's favorite. The kid was an absolute techno-geek, the same as Morty had grown to be over his time with Rick; the only real difference being that the other actually knew a lot about the ins and outs of all the gadgets he messed with. Morty was always impressed by the various technology they used and encountered on adventures, but Rick had always been the one to really understand them, with Morty trying and failing to file away the older man's ramblings in his brain for later.

 

He was really nice and funny too; he constantly was cracking bad jokes to break the silence that made Morty snicker. He didn't seem at all condescending, or to get annoyed at all, despite the brunette’s persistent questions about the portal and the different gadgets the tech wiz had been messing with as they had prepared for their journey into the Zone. 

 

It had been quite the opposite; the kid had seemed very eager to answer every question posed to him. It seemed like he really enjoyed having someone to share his enthusiasm with. It was a refreshing change of pace from Rick’s stinging remarks every time he'd asked a question. Morty found himself thinking that, on the off chance they weren't able to find Rick, perhaps he'd just stick around and work with Tucker and the others. It couldn't be anything worse than getting constantly chased across the galaxy, being shot at by the Galactic Federation. 

 

It took Morty a moment after snapping out of his thoughts to recognize that they had left the portal already. The surrounding area was the same indistinguishable, swirling green backdrop the portal was, seeming to stretch on endlessly into the distance. The real difference was the sudden abundance of scattered purple doors decorating the scene, along with a few bright green, twisting stairways strewn seemingly at random across the space, leading off to who knows where. There was no set up or down to this place, no markers by which to orient one’s self.

 

It was a little disconcerting.

 

Thankfully for him, none of the other's seemed to share his discomfort. Summer was eyeing their surroundings warily, but gave off no other indication of being at all uncomfortable. As for the other three, they seemed more than at home here. Danny was floating just ahead of them, looking at a map. 

 

“So, where to, Ghost Boy?” For some reason, Summer's inquiry dress a snort from Sam, who proceeded to lean over and whisper something about someone named Paulina in the other’s ear that Morty couldn't quite make out. Whatever it was though, it caused Tucker to laugh, leaning back and shaking his head. “Really? She reminds you of-? Nah, I don't think so. I don't think anyone else can be on the same level as her, no matter what. She's an entire playing field unto herself.”

 

Summer, much to her credit, blew them off effortlessly, maintaining her focus of Danny, whom she seemed to have gotten along with right off the bat. At least, in compared to her relationship to the other two. 

 

“Well, that depends.” The halfa looked up from the page he was holding back at the group. “How would you describe your grandfather as a person?” Noticing the sibling’s exchange of looks, he continued. “You know, not like psychoanalytically or anything. Just, like if he were said to have gone to either heaven or hell, which-”

 

“Hell.” The siblings replied instantly, causing the rest to give them confused and slightly concerned stares. “And...you want to go save him, why?” 

 

“You'll understand once you meet him.” Morty waved off the question nonchalantly, which did nothing to ease the unsettled feeling Team Phantom was feeling from the unison response the two had given. If anything, it only caused the lingering doubt Sam had planted in all three of them that this could be some kind of trap set up by Plasmius to increase two-fold. 

 

An sudden increase in urgency to find this man slithered wordlessly in the minds of the three, realising now that even if the genius wasn't working for Vlad now, there was a possibility of it should he reach the scientist first. An uncomfortable moment of silence wedged itself between the group. 

 

“Well, okay then…” Danny as the one to break the silence, turning away from the rest of them and back to his map. “That being the case, then it looks like we should be headed in,” He pointed diagonally to his left. “In that direction.” 

 

Then, as he sped off with the rest of the group right on his heels, he muttered to himself mindlessly. “I just hope we reach him first.” 

 

~

 

It was this absorption into their own thoughts that caused the teens to completely miss the figure watching from a distance, chuckling as he watched them speed off into the distance. 

 

“Well, Daniel, it certainly seems like you've found yourself in quite the predicament, hm?” Sound travelled far in the Ghost Zone, with it's noticeable lack of objects to inhibit sound from spanning out from the source in all directions. And it hadn't taken too much effort for the blue skinned figure to piece together a general idea of what the children were looking for. These two stranger’s grandfather? 

 

Possible reasons the children seemed so intent on locating the man whirled through Plasmius’ mind as he waited for them to disappear completely from his field of view. Obviously this man was of some importance to them as well; which meant he would be a perfect bargaining chip for blackmailing the children into doing what he wanted them to. Or for laying a trap for them. Really, the possibilities were endless. 

 

An evil smirk played on the corners of his lips as the halfa pulled his phone from his pocket, quickly pounding a few numbers into it. “Hello? Yes, this is Plasmius. Look, I was wondering if you could do me a little favor. It has to do with a special visit to a certain arrogant ghost boy. “

 

“No, I won't be accompanying you. I have some rather pressing business I need to attend to, actually. I just thought I'd let you know that he was here. I know you have been dying to have a little ‘get together’ since the last time you saw each other. Yes, well, good luck with that. Yes, yes, I know. Good bye.”

  
Shoving the cellular device back into his pocket, he grinned. “Now, let us see exactly what your old man has in store that has you so worked up, shall we?” 


End file.
